When All Goes Bad
by Zeitlose Alters
Summary: After nearly dying, Anakin must decide whether to stay by Padme's side...or to accept his feelings for Ahsoka. NO SLASH, just a complicated love triangle and fluff


**hi again! I've recently discovered that SWTCW is on Netflix and I've re watched it ****about three** **times . ****it was killing me so I had to write this. Before we begin, NO SLASH—fluff, but no slash. There will be fluff, and I'm mostly positive that will be all for ****_that category. _You guys'll have to bear with me because I can't write aerial dogfights without them sounding short and cheesy, but I'll try my hardest (and feedback is always appreciated). Here we go**

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2 Days Earlier—Coruscant

_Screaming—a woman's voice—so much screaming. She kept calling his name, but she was being dragged away. A pair of chains was pulling her away by the arms. Pulling her away from him. _

_"Anakin! Please...don't take me from him! Anny!"_

_Padme._

_He kept shouting for her. Kept shouting for her to wait, or stay, or to come back and not go. But she wasn't stopping. More yelling came from behind him._

_"Master, help me! Please!"_

_Ahsoka._

_He didn't know who to run for. If he ran for Padme, he would be abandoning his Padawan. But if he ran for Ahsoka, he'd be abandoning his wife. He had to choose. He hated choosing...the two people he cared for most most were being pulled out of his life—literally. _

_The chains pulled both of them into the white background and disappeared. The screaming stopped. All sounds, all motion, all life just stopped. Anakin stopped and dropped to his knees. They were gone. Taken from him. He could do nothing. He was powerless. Helpless. _

He bolted up in bed, panting and drenched in cold sweat. Anakin covered his face with his hands and took in a deep breath. The blankets stirred next to him and he felt hands wrapping around his bare shoulders. It took him a minute to calm himself before he recognized the embrace as Padme.

He put his hands in his lap and looked at his wife, "I'm fine. Just another nightmare."

"Anny...it's the same one isn't it?" she asked quietly.

He nodded, "it's gotta mean something. I know it."

Padme leaned over and clicked the lamp on her nightstand on. All the lights in the elaborate apartment came on and the senator got out of the bed. Her white nightgown brushed the floor as she walked over to a table and poured a glass of water. She passed it to Anakin, who gratefully drank it. He set it on the nightstand and turned the lights off through his lamp when Padme returned to bed.

The Jedi wrapped his arms around her and kissed her softly on the forehead. She smiled and craned her neck to meet his lips. Anakin bit down tenderly on Padme's lips, signaling her to stay. The senator giggled quietly and pushed her own lips harder against his. Anakin's hand moved up Padme's neck and cradled her cheek in his palm; slowly stroking her cheek with his thumb.

"How about we—" Anakin's communicator beeped and cut him off.

He groaned irritably, reached behind his back, and smacked it with his hand.

"Sorry to wake you, but your needed in the briefing room. Try and hurry while you're at it, Anakin," Obi-Wan said partially sarcastic.

"On my way," Anakin smacked the communicator again and groped for the light switch, "sorry. It's kinda important."

Padme sighed, "Jedi business. I know. So much for our uninterrupted weekend."

Anakin pulled his tunic on and clipped the belt on. He kissed Padme one more time as he hopped out the door while struggling to pull his boots on.

...

"We'll need to send some supply ships to our troops on Hoth. The Separatists have set up a small blockade around the planet, and are spreading our troops thin," Mace Windu explained, "Anakin, you'll need to take a squadron of fighters and distract their defenses while the supply ships sneak past."

"Sounds fun," Anakin directed his attention to Ahsoka, "Snips, go tell Admiral Wolf to load the Endurance. I'll meet you at the landing bay shortly."

She nodded and walked out.

* * *

2 Days Later—Republic Cruiser: Endurance

Troopers scrambled throughout the hangar while various fighters were being prepared and the supply ships loaded. Captain Rex was standing on a crate directing the clones around while R2D2 and another astro-mech were being fitted into Ahsoka and Anakin's fighters.

"You'll be fine. All we have to do is distract some droids. You can do that," Anakin said in a semi-motivational tone.

"I know, I know. Just watch your back, Master. I have a bad feeling about this," Ahsoka mumbled while the cockpit closed around her.

Anakin settled into his own fighter and R2 beeped at him, signaling that he was ready to take off.

"Ahsoka, you ready over there?"

"All set."

The rest of Blade Squad began to sound off one through twelve and the familiar sound of the X-wing engines resonated through the cruiser's hangar. Once Blade-12 sounded off, Anakin made his way out of the cruiser's bay doors with Ahsoka and the squad follwing behind him. They were met with a shower of red and blue blaster fire, explosions, and Vulture droids darting by.

Ahsoka took Blade fighters three, four, eight, nine, and eleven to the left and began engaging a small battalion of Vulture droids to the left. Meanwhile Anakin and his portion of the squadron were busy fending off their own Vulture droids. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another Separatist command ship drop out of hyper-space behind the others. A hail of laser fire from all sides of them caught Blades five, six, and twelve in a crossfire that ended in two large explosions.

"It's on my tail! I-I can't shake him! Can some—" the communication ended with static.

"Jinx!" the clone tried to hide a saddened sigh, "Commander, Blade seven is gone."

That was the last of Ahsoka's portion. Her fighter was undamaged, and she was flying towards Anakin—who was in the middle of being shot at.

"Snips, how you doing over there?"

"It's just me, master. My half was destroyed. You?"

"Blades two and ten are hanging on. I might need your help a little bit."

A pair of Vulture droids was drowning him in laser fire. R2 beeped directions at him, which Anakin disregarded. All of a sudden, his fighter dipped out of the air in a beeline for the nearest command ship. In an effort to correct his flight path, the Jedi failed to see the stabilizing motor drop out of his fighter. Ahsoka flew for him, with no actual plan to save him. Anakin's fighter swerved away from the ship at a near miss, and was spiraling towards Hoth.

"Master, your heading for the planet. You—...atmosphere will burn...fighter up..."

All Anakin heard was static as his fighter was soon engulfed by the orange of the atmosphere.

"R2, get ready for a crash landing!"

The astromech beeped nervously. Anakin shielded his face with his arms and the small fighter rammed into a snow bank. The glass dome of the cockpit flew off and the sudden cold pierced him from every angle. The nose of the fighter bounced up, and propelled the rest of the vessel with it. Plating tore away and pelted Anakin in a sideways shower of metal, while the fighter hit the snow once more. It barrel rolled for a few meters before finally stopping upside down, leaving Anakin pinned beneath it.

He struggled to push himself out, but found his leg held down painfully by a wing. When he tried moving it, there was a loud crack and he screamed out. Anakin managed to get his head and shoulder out from under his crashed ship before he could bear the pain no more. In a failed attempt at getting his left arm free, he only managed to cut it. Red blood snaked its way out from under him and colored the snow at his side. The Jedi groaned and laid back in the snow. He was getting no where successful anytime soon. Anakin heard familiar beeping overhead and R2D2 landed himself softly on the ground. He small jets curled back into his struts and he slowly wheeled his way over to Anakin.

"I n-n-need you t-to send a message to the cruiser," Anakin choked out, "tell th-them to send a r-r-rescue squad. Okay?"

A small antenna extended from the top of R2 and spun around as it transmitted. A frigid wind blew over them And coated everything on a slight layer of ice. The cold stung Anakin's lungs and he coughed in protest. It took every ounce of strength he had, but he miraculously found a way to utilize the Force in preventing himself from freezing to death.

He made up his mind not to die as a Popsicle.

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**A/N—just bear with me so far...I'm not a Star Wars expert, so I apologize if anything seems off. I just watch the movies, but i never pay any attention to the nitpicky details. I'll add the next chapter as quickly as I can...so ill try not to take forever.**


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